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INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
INS provides
experience to Fond
du Lac students
page 3
Obituary:
Rhonda Ann
Stately
page 6
Whitefeather is out of
chances
page 4
Liars Day
approaches
page 4
Commentary •
Remembering what's
important
page 4
Joseph White charged with murder of his wife
Rhoda Stately
By Bill Lawrence
Joseph Wayne White, 46, of
Redby was charged by the F.B.I, on
May 28 with the murder of his wife
Rhoda Ann Stately, 31, also of
Redby. According to F.B.I. Special
Agent Tim Ball of Bemidji, the
murder, which appears to be the result of stabbing, occurred the early
morning hours of May 28 at the
couple's home in the McBride
Housing Project on the Red Lake
Reservation.
Family members told Press/ON
that the victim's six-year old son
called the Red Lake police, who responded immediately and arrested
White at the scene. Family members also told Press/ON that the
victim's three children, daughters
age 11 and 13 and son age 6, witnessed the incident. They also said
White and Stately were married
last January.
White was arraigned before Federal Magistrate Randy Berg in
Bemidji on May 28, and transported to the Twin Cities area for
incarceration pending formal federal charges being filed against
him. A detention hearing for White
is scheduled for 2:00 Friday afternoon May 31 before Federal Magistrate Judge Earl Cudd in Minneapolis.
Murders involving Indians on
the Red Lake reservation are subject to federal jurisdiction under the
Indian Major Crimes Act, so White
could face execution even though
the death penalty is barred in the
state of Minnesota. Both White
and his deceased wife Rhoda are
enrolled members ofthe Red Lake
Band of Chippewa Indians.
Giving tribal court actions the force of state law?
"Petition for the adoption of a
by Clara NiiSka
The Minnesota Tribal Court
State Court Forum presented a
"Full Faith & Credit Petition" to
the Minnesota Supreme Court
Advisory Committee on the General Rules of Practice at the
Rules Committee's Wednesday,
May 22 meeting at the Minnesota
Judicial Center. The proposed
rule, amended by the Forum, ear- ■
her that day, would mandate that
Minnesota state courts and law
enforcement officials recognize
tribal court actions with "full
faith and credit," meaning that
the actions of any tribal court
would have the full force of state
law in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Rules of Court
for State Courts fill more than a
thousand pages, and detail everything from the proper forms and
paper size to be used for documents filed in Minnesota courts,
to the professional rules of con-
Rule of Procedure for the recognition of tribal court orders"
duct forjudges and attorneys.
Like the rules which make baseball a different game than football
or golf, the Rules of Court mandate the processes and define the
structure within which laws in the
state of Minnesota are litigated
and enforced.
Press/ON publisher Bill
Lawrence, who according to the
affidavit he filed with the Rules
Committee, has been "addressing
the problems of 'tribal courts'
since the late 1960s," has been
following the activities of the
Tribal Court State Court Forum
since it was launched in 1996 at
the initiative of Justice Sandra
Gardebring, who resigned from
the Minnesota Supreme Court in
1998. Despite his several requests that he be notified of Forum proceedings, Lawrence
learned of the pending Rules
Committee hearing of the
Forum's petition one day in ad
vance ofthe hearing, through
publication in the Legal Ledger.
Lawrence, who on May 22nd
was in Bemidji making funeral
arrangements for his son Joel,
faxed an affidavit in objection to
the proposed "Full Faith &
Credit" rule. Press/ON was represented at the hearing by counsel
Randy V. Thompson, and by two
writers. This writer, whose concerns about the tribal courts have
been deepened by the horror stories she has heard and substantiated - including the legal nightmare experienced by Jawnie
Hough - as a writer for Press/
ON, also filed an affidavit in objection to the proposed rule.
The Tribal Court / State Court
Forum is jointly chaired by Justice Robert H. Schumacher of the
Minnesota Court of Appeals, and
attorney Henry M. Buffalo Jr. of
PETITION to page 5
Senator
Wellstone courts
Native vote in
Bemidji meeting
By Jeff Armstrong
The Minnesota Green Party's
surprising nomination of an Oglala
author of numerous books on Native spirituality to contest a tight
U.S. Senate race may serve to raise
the political profile of indigenous
issues in the state.
The message was not lost on
Senator Paul Wellstone, who met
Wednesday in Bemidji with tribal
officials from northern Minnesota.
Red Lake chainnan Bobby
Whitefeather said that while tribes
are increasingly contributing to
both major parties, Wellstone is
most deserving of Native support.
"We have to be at the table.
Whether tribes donate to Democrats or Republicans is up to them,"
said Whitefeather. "Paul is the only
senator in recent times that has contacted Red Lake and asked 'how
can I help.'"
Wellstone denied apprehension that Green Party candidate Ed
WELLSTONE to page 3
Leave No Child Behind:
Pretty Words but Little Substance, So Far
By Jean Pagano
President Bush's State ofthe
Union address in 2002 championed
the cause of 'Leave No Child Behind. ' The basic notion of Leave
No Child Behind, as detailed in the
Act to Leave No Child Behind (S.
940/HR. 1990-not the
Administration's scaled-back H. R.
1) is to: a) get every child ready for
school through full funding of
childcare and Head Start; b) lift every child from poverty, Vi by 2004,
all by 2010; c) ensure that every
child and their parents have health
care; d) end child hunger by expanding food programs; and e) ensure that every child can read by
grade 4 and can graduate from
school and be able to work and
hve. These are just a few points
from the Act. Yet the financing for
these programs to help the nation's
children is sorely lacking. The
President's Tax Cut plan allots
47.1 % of the tax cut to the wealthiest 5% of Americans, whereas the
bottom 20% enjoy 0.9% ofthe tax
cut. According to the Children's
Defense Fund, if the President's
Tax Cut plan were instead deployed to aid the children that are
not to be left behind, it would pay
for: a) health insurance for every
uninsured child; b) Head Start, preschool, and quality child care for
every ehgible child who needs it; c)
help rebuild crumbling schools and
reduce class sizes in the early elementary years; d) help 10 milhon
needy individuals, mostly in needy
families, get food stamps; e) provide housing vouchers to 3.6 milhon children living in families with
'worst case' housing needs; and, f)
help provide services to protect
millions of abused and neglected
children. Instead, in families that
need the most, the average tax cut
is $66.00.
While the President touts 'Leave
No Child Behind,' his budget offers
the smallest budget increase in the
last seven years. Pretty words make
for great speeches, yet action is
what will help the children of
America. As of December 2001,
there were 4,735 children in the
state of Minnesota on waiting lists
for childcare assistance. In California, the number is 280,000 children
on waiting lists. The Administration
says that people who receive assis-
CHILD to page 3
Man charged in killing of teen girl on White Earth
reservation
Associated Press
MAHNOMEN, Minn.—Authorities on Tuesday charged a
Naytahwaush man with second-
degree murder in the death of a
teen-age girl on the White Earth
Indian Reservation last week.
Kevin James Brown Jr., 21, is
accused of killing a girl who authorities believed was strangled to
death. Her body was found in a
wooded area on Friday evening.
Investigators haven't released
the name ofthe victim because
they're waiting on a check of dental
records. But family members said
she is Rita Burnette, 14, of
Naytahwaush, and a cousin to
Brown.
Naytahwaush, which is on the
White Earth Indian Reservation, is
about 60 miles northeast of
Moorhead in northwest Minnesota.
Mahnomen County sheriff's
deputies and a Minnesota State Patrol trooper arrested Brown early
Sunday. His bail was set at
$250,000 and his next court appearance is June 6.
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
web page: www.press-on.net
Pisces
Native
American
Press
Ojibwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication. Copyright, Native American Press, 2002
Founded in 1988
Volume 15 Issue 1
May 31,2002
submitted photo
Tribal land at Morton, Minnesota, a short distance south of the Minnesota River, showing
an example of the damage that ATVs have done.
God's Country
By Maxine V. Eidsvig
My uncle, Sonny (Francis)
Goodthunder, called the area in
southwestern Minnesota "God's
Country." He was not speaking
of just the land on the small reservation we lived on, but of the
entire surrounding area; the rich
farmland and the httle hamlet of
Morton about a mile or so from
the reservation. Those of us who
were fortunate to have grown up
in the area when life was simple
and quiet, know exactly why
Sonny called it God's Country.
The wooded area held a wealth
of wonderful wild fruit—
chokecherries, plums, gooseberries, strawberries and raspberries, on which we as children
feasted. We had the Minnesota
River where we could swim in
the summer and ice skate in the
winter. All in all, it was an idyllic
life, in spite of a Depression that
gripped the nation.
In the early 1940's, a tornado
tore through the area taking a
swath of trees on the hillside as it
skipped over and around the
homes on the reservation and
around the homes in the surrounding area. It seems as if
Mother Nature has a way of repairing what she destroys because that entire area is wooded
again. Humans, on the other
hand, destroy without repairing
or replacing.
Sometime in the 1960's, I am
not sure ofthe exact year, the
tribal council aUowed a logging
company to cut down and remove
many ofthe trees on reservation
land. The proceeds were distributed among the three
Mdewakanton communities:
Lower 5ioux, Fiaiiic island iii}d
Shakopee. (We used to share in
those days, but that's another story.)
The sale of the timber was to provide some economic rehef but what
should have been done was to use
some of the proceeds to replant. As
it were, a large area was denuded
and left to recover as best it could.
Today, with the economic wealth
provided by casino profits, this area
is further ravaged by the ATVs
which have proliferated on the reservation. One can see three or four
ATVs parked outside many ofthe
homes. The area where many of the
trees were removed, is now an
ATV playground of muddied trails,
Recently, the Minnesota DNR reversed their pohcy to offer special
areas for ATV drivers to operate
their vehicles. Churning circles in
mud and scrambling up hillsides
were cited as two ofthe most environmentally damaging activities
(Star Tribune, May 11,2002). Photos submitted with this article will
show the reader what ATVs have
done to the land on the reservation
which was never properly replanted after timber was removed
and which is a short distance from
the Minnesota River.
In a recent publication of the
Lower Sioux News from the tribal
council, there was a brief note regarding ATVS which read
"Friendly Reminder: The Use of
Off Road Motorized Vehicles.
Please Parents remind your children to stay off Community members' yards. We have had a number
of complaints already this spring.
Respect one another." Respect
should also be extended to the
farmers who plant fields adjacent
to reservation land. One can see
trails cutting across the planted
fields. The age of the children
driving or riding on an ATV in and
around the reservation should also
be a matter of concern. Children
no more than 5 years old can be
seen riding with other children not
much older, on reservation roads
and on county roads. There was
nothing in the newsletter to remind
parents ofthe laws pertaining to
riding and driving the vehicles. It
is amazing that there has been only
one serious accident involving an
ATV.
In a letter to the community last
summer written by a current tribal
council member, he wrote about
the "success ofthe casino and how
the children could now be afforded
luxuries rather than be envious of
others." Is this what John
McCarthy, Executive Director of
the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, meant in his May 14,
2002, letter to the Wall Street Journal when he wrote that "small
gaming tribes have been success-
ATV to page 3
Voters expected to decide Indian
gambling's future
By Scott Thomsen
Associated Press
PHOENIX — By rejecting an Indian gambling agreement negotiated
by Gov. Jane Hull and 17 tribes, the
Legislature has left the future of legal gambling in Arizona in voters'
hands.
State lawmakers closed a special
session on gambling Thursday, a
day after defeating the proposal by
Hull and the tribes.
'Tribal leaders put more than 21/
2 years of work into negotiations,"
said David LaSarte, executive director ofthe Arizona Indian Gaming
Association. "Our leaders remain
committed to the essential provisions of those negotiations. This
commitment is reflected in our initiative to continue limited and regulated gaming in Indian lands."
The tribes' initiative would ask
voters to approve essentially the
same deal defeated by the Legislature.
Tribes could offer Las Vegas-
style blackjack and put more of their
currently allotted slots into play by
transferring them from rural Arizona
where they go unused to urban areas
with casinos. The state would get
regulatory oversight and up to 8 percent of gross casino revenues. The
deal would last up to 29 years.
Indian casinos have been operating in Arizona since 1993 under judicial rulings that opened the door
and agreements, or compacts, with
the state for the type and amount of
gambling that is allowed. The first
compacts are due to expire next
year.
After Hull started negotiating renewals, another judge ruled state
law did not allow slot machines and
other casino gambling at all. He also
prohibited Hull from signing new
deals, saying the Legislature or voters needed to have an active role in
outlining their provisions.
The tribes didn't get approval
from the Legislature. As they seek it
from voters, they may be competing
against other gambling initiatives
from the Colorado River Indian
Tribe and the state's horse and dog
racetracks.
" Each group must collect about
101,000 signatures from registered
voters by July 4 to qualify for the
ballot.
The Colorado River Indian
Tribes' proposal also allows slot machine transfers and would provide
casinos a wider range of table
VOTERS to page 3
BIA official blames firing on play by California tribe
By Don Thompson
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — The No. 2
official at the Bureau of Indian
Affairs says he was fired due to
the political influence of a tiny
California Indian tribe that wants
to build a $150 million casino
near Sacramento.
The three-member tribe
counters that it was Wayne Smith
who acted wrongly, by arranging
a meeting with a former business
partner who allegedly promised
he could solve the Buena Vista
tribe's problems at the BIA in exchange for $25,000 a month and a
negotiated percentage ofthe
casino's projected gross venues.
Smith, the U.S. Department of
Interior's deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs, was fired
Friday amid charges of influence-
peddling that now reach to the
White House itself.
Smith sought an investigation
by the FBI and Interior
Department's inspector general
this spring amid allegations that
he arranged meetings with two
West Coast tribes for his friend
and former business partner,
Philip Bersinger.
Smith alleged that politically
connected backers ofthe Buena
Vista Me-Wuk tribe were upset
that he did not immediately reverse the BIA's initial ruling handing control of the tribe to a blood
descendant who opposes the $150
million casino.
That decision endangers the
more than $10 million that Cascade Entertainment of Sacramento has already invested in the
tribe's effort to get permission to
build the casino.
In a May 16 letter, Smith complained to a senior Interior Department official that the White
House was making "highly inappropriate" calls urging him to reverse the decision. He was soon
placed on administrative leave,
then fired, effective Tuesday.
On Friday, Smith said he was
seeking protection under federal
whistle-blower laws designed to
protect workers who speak out.
And he asked the U.S.
Attorney's office in the District of
Columbia to investigate what his
attorney, Nancy Luque, alleged
was "an improper use of influence
by the White House and those
connected to Republican politics
and reprisals against Mr. Smith
for reporting that influence."
White House and Interior Department spokesmen denied the
claims.
The tribe contends it was Smith
who set the stage for influence
peddling by Bersinger.
Tribal representatives said
Smith arranged to bring Bersinger
to a meeting weeks after the BIA
had ruled regarding the tribe's
leadership. A few weeks after that,
Bersinger aUegedly made his offer to a tribal attorney, touting his
access and influence to Interior
and Indian Affairs because of his
relationship with Smith.
The tribe since has cooperated
fuUy with both the FBI and Interior Department investigations,
said Buena Vista spokeswoman
Jean Munoz.
She declined further comment
Friday but previously denied that
the tribe, its attorneys, or the Republican lobbyists it's hired in
Washington, D.C, have tried to
undermine Smith. She accused
Smith of trying to make the tribe a
"scapegoat" to draw attention
from his own problems.
Smith, 52, a descendent ofthe
Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux in
South Dakota, was named to the
BIA's No. 2 post in October. He
was one of several top Interior officials who joined the Bush administration after working for
former Republican California At-
PLAY to page 3
Indian burial
service helps
bring home
loved ones
By Renee Ruble
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Robert
Deschampe was rich in his ancestry,
known for his intricate beadwork
and pride in the traditional dress of
the Grand Portage Chippewa
But when he died suddenly of a
heart attack he left httle—no burial
fund, no insurance and no money.
His sister, Kathleen Briski, said famUy members' grief was compounded
by worry about affording the right
kind of funeral arrangements.
"We didn't know what we were
going to do. It was just terrible,"
Briski said. "We loved him. We
wanted to have something proper
for him."
A friend passed along the name of
the Rev. Claudia Windal. Soon,
Briski had an American Indian-
decorated urn for her brother's ashes
and travel money to go from her
Twin Cites home to Duluth, where
she met with relatives from the reservation and honored Deschampe
with cirumrning, blessings and
American Indian food.
SERVICE to page 3

INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
INS provides
experience to Fond
du Lac students
page 3
Obituary:
Rhonda Ann
Stately
page 6
Whitefeather is out of
chances
page 4
Liars Day
approaches
page 4
Commentary •
Remembering what's
important
page 4
Joseph White charged with murder of his wife
Rhoda Stately
By Bill Lawrence
Joseph Wayne White, 46, of
Redby was charged by the F.B.I, on
May 28 with the murder of his wife
Rhoda Ann Stately, 31, also of
Redby. According to F.B.I. Special
Agent Tim Ball of Bemidji, the
murder, which appears to be the result of stabbing, occurred the early
morning hours of May 28 at the
couple's home in the McBride
Housing Project on the Red Lake
Reservation.
Family members told Press/ON
that the victim's six-year old son
called the Red Lake police, who responded immediately and arrested
White at the scene. Family members also told Press/ON that the
victim's three children, daughters
age 11 and 13 and son age 6, witnessed the incident. They also said
White and Stately were married
last January.
White was arraigned before Federal Magistrate Randy Berg in
Bemidji on May 28, and transported to the Twin Cities area for
incarceration pending formal federal charges being filed against
him. A detention hearing for White
is scheduled for 2:00 Friday afternoon May 31 before Federal Magistrate Judge Earl Cudd in Minneapolis.
Murders involving Indians on
the Red Lake reservation are subject to federal jurisdiction under the
Indian Major Crimes Act, so White
could face execution even though
the death penalty is barred in the
state of Minnesota. Both White
and his deceased wife Rhoda are
enrolled members ofthe Red Lake
Band of Chippewa Indians.
Giving tribal court actions the force of state law?
"Petition for the adoption of a
by Clara NiiSka
The Minnesota Tribal Court
State Court Forum presented a
"Full Faith & Credit Petition" to
the Minnesota Supreme Court
Advisory Committee on the General Rules of Practice at the
Rules Committee's Wednesday,
May 22 meeting at the Minnesota
Judicial Center. The proposed
rule, amended by the Forum, ear- ■
her that day, would mandate that
Minnesota state courts and law
enforcement officials recognize
tribal court actions with "full
faith and credit," meaning that
the actions of any tribal court
would have the full force of state
law in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Rules of Court
for State Courts fill more than a
thousand pages, and detail everything from the proper forms and
paper size to be used for documents filed in Minnesota courts,
to the professional rules of con-
Rule of Procedure for the recognition of tribal court orders"
duct forjudges and attorneys.
Like the rules which make baseball a different game than football
or golf, the Rules of Court mandate the processes and define the
structure within which laws in the
state of Minnesota are litigated
and enforced.
Press/ON publisher Bill
Lawrence, who according to the
affidavit he filed with the Rules
Committee, has been "addressing
the problems of 'tribal courts'
since the late 1960s," has been
following the activities of the
Tribal Court State Court Forum
since it was launched in 1996 at
the initiative of Justice Sandra
Gardebring, who resigned from
the Minnesota Supreme Court in
1998. Despite his several requests that he be notified of Forum proceedings, Lawrence
learned of the pending Rules
Committee hearing of the
Forum's petition one day in ad
vance ofthe hearing, through
publication in the Legal Ledger.
Lawrence, who on May 22nd
was in Bemidji making funeral
arrangements for his son Joel,
faxed an affidavit in objection to
the proposed "Full Faith &
Credit" rule. Press/ON was represented at the hearing by counsel
Randy V. Thompson, and by two
writers. This writer, whose concerns about the tribal courts have
been deepened by the horror stories she has heard and substantiated - including the legal nightmare experienced by Jawnie
Hough - as a writer for Press/
ON, also filed an affidavit in objection to the proposed rule.
The Tribal Court / State Court
Forum is jointly chaired by Justice Robert H. Schumacher of the
Minnesota Court of Appeals, and
attorney Henry M. Buffalo Jr. of
PETITION to page 5
Senator
Wellstone courts
Native vote in
Bemidji meeting
By Jeff Armstrong
The Minnesota Green Party's
surprising nomination of an Oglala
author of numerous books on Native spirituality to contest a tight
U.S. Senate race may serve to raise
the political profile of indigenous
issues in the state.
The message was not lost on
Senator Paul Wellstone, who met
Wednesday in Bemidji with tribal
officials from northern Minnesota.
Red Lake chainnan Bobby
Whitefeather said that while tribes
are increasingly contributing to
both major parties, Wellstone is
most deserving of Native support.
"We have to be at the table.
Whether tribes donate to Democrats or Republicans is up to them,"
said Whitefeather. "Paul is the only
senator in recent times that has contacted Red Lake and asked 'how
can I help.'"
Wellstone denied apprehension that Green Party candidate Ed
WELLSTONE to page 3
Leave No Child Behind:
Pretty Words but Little Substance, So Far
By Jean Pagano
President Bush's State ofthe
Union address in 2002 championed
the cause of 'Leave No Child Behind. ' The basic notion of Leave
No Child Behind, as detailed in the
Act to Leave No Child Behind (S.
940/HR. 1990-not the
Administration's scaled-back H. R.
1) is to: a) get every child ready for
school through full funding of
childcare and Head Start; b) lift every child from poverty, Vi by 2004,
all by 2010; c) ensure that every
child and their parents have health
care; d) end child hunger by expanding food programs; and e) ensure that every child can read by
grade 4 and can graduate from
school and be able to work and
hve. These are just a few points
from the Act. Yet the financing for
these programs to help the nation's
children is sorely lacking. The
President's Tax Cut plan allots
47.1 % of the tax cut to the wealthiest 5% of Americans, whereas the
bottom 20% enjoy 0.9% ofthe tax
cut. According to the Children's
Defense Fund, if the President's
Tax Cut plan were instead deployed to aid the children that are
not to be left behind, it would pay
for: a) health insurance for every
uninsured child; b) Head Start, preschool, and quality child care for
every ehgible child who needs it; c)
help rebuild crumbling schools and
reduce class sizes in the early elementary years; d) help 10 milhon
needy individuals, mostly in needy
families, get food stamps; e) provide housing vouchers to 3.6 milhon children living in families with
'worst case' housing needs; and, f)
help provide services to protect
millions of abused and neglected
children. Instead, in families that
need the most, the average tax cut
is $66.00.
While the President touts 'Leave
No Child Behind,' his budget offers
the smallest budget increase in the
last seven years. Pretty words make
for great speeches, yet action is
what will help the children of
America. As of December 2001,
there were 4,735 children in the
state of Minnesota on waiting lists
for childcare assistance. In California, the number is 280,000 children
on waiting lists. The Administration
says that people who receive assis-
CHILD to page 3
Man charged in killing of teen girl on White Earth
reservation
Associated Press
MAHNOMEN, Minn.—Authorities on Tuesday charged a
Naytahwaush man with second-
degree murder in the death of a
teen-age girl on the White Earth
Indian Reservation last week.
Kevin James Brown Jr., 21, is
accused of killing a girl who authorities believed was strangled to
death. Her body was found in a
wooded area on Friday evening.
Investigators haven't released
the name ofthe victim because
they're waiting on a check of dental
records. But family members said
she is Rita Burnette, 14, of
Naytahwaush, and a cousin to
Brown.
Naytahwaush, which is on the
White Earth Indian Reservation, is
about 60 miles northeast of
Moorhead in northwest Minnesota.
Mahnomen County sheriff's
deputies and a Minnesota State Patrol trooper arrested Brown early
Sunday. His bail was set at
$250,000 and his next court appearance is June 6.
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
web page: www.press-on.net
Pisces
Native
American
Press
Ojibwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication. Copyright, Native American Press, 2002
Founded in 1988
Volume 15 Issue 1
May 31,2002
submitted photo
Tribal land at Morton, Minnesota, a short distance south of the Minnesota River, showing
an example of the damage that ATVs have done.
God's Country
By Maxine V. Eidsvig
My uncle, Sonny (Francis)
Goodthunder, called the area in
southwestern Minnesota "God's
Country." He was not speaking
of just the land on the small reservation we lived on, but of the
entire surrounding area; the rich
farmland and the httle hamlet of
Morton about a mile or so from
the reservation. Those of us who
were fortunate to have grown up
in the area when life was simple
and quiet, know exactly why
Sonny called it God's Country.
The wooded area held a wealth
of wonderful wild fruit—
chokecherries, plums, gooseberries, strawberries and raspberries, on which we as children
feasted. We had the Minnesota
River where we could swim in
the summer and ice skate in the
winter. All in all, it was an idyllic
life, in spite of a Depression that
gripped the nation.
In the early 1940's, a tornado
tore through the area taking a
swath of trees on the hillside as it
skipped over and around the
homes on the reservation and
around the homes in the surrounding area. It seems as if
Mother Nature has a way of repairing what she destroys because that entire area is wooded
again. Humans, on the other
hand, destroy without repairing
or replacing.
Sometime in the 1960's, I am
not sure ofthe exact year, the
tribal council aUowed a logging
company to cut down and remove
many ofthe trees on reservation
land. The proceeds were distributed among the three
Mdewakanton communities:
Lower 5ioux, Fiaiiic island iii}d
Shakopee. (We used to share in
those days, but that's another story.)
The sale of the timber was to provide some economic rehef but what
should have been done was to use
some of the proceeds to replant. As
it were, a large area was denuded
and left to recover as best it could.
Today, with the economic wealth
provided by casino profits, this area
is further ravaged by the ATVs
which have proliferated on the reservation. One can see three or four
ATVs parked outside many ofthe
homes. The area where many of the
trees were removed, is now an
ATV playground of muddied trails,
Recently, the Minnesota DNR reversed their pohcy to offer special
areas for ATV drivers to operate
their vehicles. Churning circles in
mud and scrambling up hillsides
were cited as two ofthe most environmentally damaging activities
(Star Tribune, May 11,2002). Photos submitted with this article will
show the reader what ATVs have
done to the land on the reservation
which was never properly replanted after timber was removed
and which is a short distance from
the Minnesota River.
In a recent publication of the
Lower Sioux News from the tribal
council, there was a brief note regarding ATVS which read
"Friendly Reminder: The Use of
Off Road Motorized Vehicles.
Please Parents remind your children to stay off Community members' yards. We have had a number
of complaints already this spring.
Respect one another." Respect
should also be extended to the
farmers who plant fields adjacent
to reservation land. One can see
trails cutting across the planted
fields. The age of the children
driving or riding on an ATV in and
around the reservation should also
be a matter of concern. Children
no more than 5 years old can be
seen riding with other children not
much older, on reservation roads
and on county roads. There was
nothing in the newsletter to remind
parents ofthe laws pertaining to
riding and driving the vehicles. It
is amazing that there has been only
one serious accident involving an
ATV.
In a letter to the community last
summer written by a current tribal
council member, he wrote about
the "success ofthe casino and how
the children could now be afforded
luxuries rather than be envious of
others." Is this what John
McCarthy, Executive Director of
the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, meant in his May 14,
2002, letter to the Wall Street Journal when he wrote that "small
gaming tribes have been success-
ATV to page 3
Voters expected to decide Indian
gambling's future
By Scott Thomsen
Associated Press
PHOENIX — By rejecting an Indian gambling agreement negotiated
by Gov. Jane Hull and 17 tribes, the
Legislature has left the future of legal gambling in Arizona in voters'
hands.
State lawmakers closed a special
session on gambling Thursday, a
day after defeating the proposal by
Hull and the tribes.
'Tribal leaders put more than 21/
2 years of work into negotiations,"
said David LaSarte, executive director ofthe Arizona Indian Gaming
Association. "Our leaders remain
committed to the essential provisions of those negotiations. This
commitment is reflected in our initiative to continue limited and regulated gaming in Indian lands."
The tribes' initiative would ask
voters to approve essentially the
same deal defeated by the Legislature.
Tribes could offer Las Vegas-
style blackjack and put more of their
currently allotted slots into play by
transferring them from rural Arizona
where they go unused to urban areas
with casinos. The state would get
regulatory oversight and up to 8 percent of gross casino revenues. The
deal would last up to 29 years.
Indian casinos have been operating in Arizona since 1993 under judicial rulings that opened the door
and agreements, or compacts, with
the state for the type and amount of
gambling that is allowed. The first
compacts are due to expire next
year.
After Hull started negotiating renewals, another judge ruled state
law did not allow slot machines and
other casino gambling at all. He also
prohibited Hull from signing new
deals, saying the Legislature or voters needed to have an active role in
outlining their provisions.
The tribes didn't get approval
from the Legislature. As they seek it
from voters, they may be competing
against other gambling initiatives
from the Colorado River Indian
Tribe and the state's horse and dog
racetracks.
" Each group must collect about
101,000 signatures from registered
voters by July 4 to qualify for the
ballot.
The Colorado River Indian
Tribes' proposal also allows slot machine transfers and would provide
casinos a wider range of table
VOTERS to page 3
BIA official blames firing on play by California tribe
By Don Thompson
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — The No. 2
official at the Bureau of Indian
Affairs says he was fired due to
the political influence of a tiny
California Indian tribe that wants
to build a $150 million casino
near Sacramento.
The three-member tribe
counters that it was Wayne Smith
who acted wrongly, by arranging
a meeting with a former business
partner who allegedly promised
he could solve the Buena Vista
tribe's problems at the BIA in exchange for $25,000 a month and a
negotiated percentage ofthe
casino's projected gross venues.
Smith, the U.S. Department of
Interior's deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs, was fired
Friday amid charges of influence-
peddling that now reach to the
White House itself.
Smith sought an investigation
by the FBI and Interior
Department's inspector general
this spring amid allegations that
he arranged meetings with two
West Coast tribes for his friend
and former business partner,
Philip Bersinger.
Smith alleged that politically
connected backers ofthe Buena
Vista Me-Wuk tribe were upset
that he did not immediately reverse the BIA's initial ruling handing control of the tribe to a blood
descendant who opposes the $150
million casino.
That decision endangers the
more than $10 million that Cascade Entertainment of Sacramento has already invested in the
tribe's effort to get permission to
build the casino.
In a May 16 letter, Smith complained to a senior Interior Department official that the White
House was making "highly inappropriate" calls urging him to reverse the decision. He was soon
placed on administrative leave,
then fired, effective Tuesday.
On Friday, Smith said he was
seeking protection under federal
whistle-blower laws designed to
protect workers who speak out.
And he asked the U.S.
Attorney's office in the District of
Columbia to investigate what his
attorney, Nancy Luque, alleged
was "an improper use of influence
by the White House and those
connected to Republican politics
and reprisals against Mr. Smith
for reporting that influence."
White House and Interior Department spokesmen denied the
claims.
The tribe contends it was Smith
who set the stage for influence
peddling by Bersinger.
Tribal representatives said
Smith arranged to bring Bersinger
to a meeting weeks after the BIA
had ruled regarding the tribe's
leadership. A few weeks after that,
Bersinger aUegedly made his offer to a tribal attorney, touting his
access and influence to Interior
and Indian Affairs because of his
relationship with Smith.
The tribe since has cooperated
fuUy with both the FBI and Interior Department investigations,
said Buena Vista spokeswoman
Jean Munoz.
She declined further comment
Friday but previously denied that
the tribe, its attorneys, or the Republican lobbyists it's hired in
Washington, D.C, have tried to
undermine Smith. She accused
Smith of trying to make the tribe a
"scapegoat" to draw attention
from his own problems.
Smith, 52, a descendent ofthe
Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux in
South Dakota, was named to the
BIA's No. 2 post in October. He
was one of several top Interior officials who joined the Bush administration after working for
former Republican California At-
PLAY to page 3
Indian burial
service helps
bring home
loved ones
By Renee Ruble
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Robert
Deschampe was rich in his ancestry,
known for his intricate beadwork
and pride in the traditional dress of
the Grand Portage Chippewa
But when he died suddenly of a
heart attack he left httle—no burial
fund, no insurance and no money.
His sister, Kathleen Briski, said famUy members' grief was compounded
by worry about affording the right
kind of funeral arrangements.
"We didn't know what we were
going to do. It was just terrible,"
Briski said. "We loved him. We
wanted to have something proper
for him."
A friend passed along the name of
the Rev. Claudia Windal. Soon,
Briski had an American Indian-
decorated urn for her brother's ashes
and travel money to go from her
Twin Cites home to Duluth, where
she met with relatives from the reservation and honored Deschampe
with cirumrning, blessings and
American Indian food.
SERVICE to page 3